In recent years, besides socio-economic development, Ha Nam Province also focuses on local defense and military tasks. In this process, recruitment work was taken very seriously and closely instructed and monitored by the provincial authority and party committee. To carry out this work, many creative methods, which were also appropriate to the condition of the province, were applied; and the result was very encouraging. To achieve this result, the whole political system and people in Ha Nam Province were mobilized in recruitment activities. Fully aware of the importance of recruitment work and the responsibility of local authorities in accomplishing this task, Ha Nam High Command and Military Party Committee, base on their understanding on each area, counseled the province’s people committee and party committee in exercising their management role in recruitment; at the same time, instructed their subordinate military commands to work with civil offices in advising conscription councils at their respective level to fulfill the task. With the assistance of provincial military establishments, local authorities at all levels in Ha Nam annually issued resolutions and made plans to conduct recruitment work. Local administrations also made sure that every party cell and neighborhood fully grasped the recruitment demand; besides, they focused on improving effectiveness of local conscription councils. In addition, Ha Nam Province authority considered the result of recruitment work as a criterion to evaluate the task performance of local administrations and party committees.

Every year, before recruitment seasons, the Ha Nam High Command proposed recommendations for the Provincial Conscription Council and organized training sessions to provide information about recruitment processes, guidelines and principles for members of local conscription councils and related cadres in the political system. Notably, the Provincial High Command also worked with Justice Department and other offices related to internal affairs to hold training courses for district and communal officials in dealing with violations of defense and recruitment rules and laws. These activities served as the basis to implement a fair, democratic and lawful recruitment process. Following this approach, again this year, Ha Nam High Command held a 2-day training course on recruitment work for 2018 for military commanders and 116 party committee secretariats of communes, wards and towns; also, military offices at district and city levels were in charge of training for deputy commanders and members of communal conscription councils. The outcome of these training activities was very positive.

Years of conducting recruitment work have proven that besides the role of local authorities and party committees, the people’s support is also very crucial. Therefore, Ha Nam Provincial High Command advised the province’s authority to increasingly carry out propaganda and education activities on conscription duty. Under the leadership of the provincial administration, there were many creative and appropriate methods were applied such as: broadcasting propaganda programs on TV, radio, and web portals; integrating recruitment work information into regular meetings of administrative bodies and people’s gatherings, etc. The main focus of propaganda program was introducing Conscription Law and raising the consciousness about the duty and responsibility of citizens in serving in the military. A part from regular propaganda activities, some parts of Conscription Law were embedded into national defense and security education programs for citizens, especially high school students. Notably, the 3rd Military Region’s High Command highly appreciated Ha Nam’s publication of summary leaflets about Conscription Law, social benefits for families of active and discharged soldiers, or penalties for violating recruitment rules, etc, to send out to citizens eligible for drafting. In addition to propaganda work, any violation of recruitment rules was taken seriously and critically to prevent further offences. With these approaches, Ha Nam Province authority managed to improve its citizens’ consciousness and responsible spirit in complying with Conscription Law.

Due to economic reasons, many male citizens (especially those who have not finished high school) often leave their hometown to seek for job opportunity. This has been a major cause for the lack of human resource for drafting. To deal with this problem, the provincial authority instructed its districts to improve registration and management processes for candidates, especially first-time candidates. Every year, before the recruitment season commenced, Phu Ly City and other districts established inspection teams, which included members from military units, police, justice departments and veteran groups and were led by a district party committee member, to implement census on human resource for military service. These teams were responsible for inspecting and managing candidate database, conducting preliminary tests and medical test, and determining which individual was eligible for temporarily delayed enlistment or exemption from conscription; they also had the authority to enforce Government Decree 120/ND-CP to penalize draft-dodging. Besides, recruitment plan, especially before preliminary tests and physical tests were kicked off, was announced early for all military service candidates and businesses which employed local human resources to plan their registration.

To improve recruitment quality, selection and approval processes for military enlistment were taken seriously and conducted in compliance with military regulations by district authorities. That said, they established interdisciplinary recruitment teams to work with cadres in towns and communes to identify candidates, check eligible criteria (literacy, medical requirement and family background), and implement official selection process. In preliminary selection, military conscription councils at all levels actively cooperate with police department to gain information about candidates. Also, approval process for individuals who were allowed to delay their military service or exempted from conscription was conducted with transparency and strictly in compliance with pre-determined criteria. Besides, to integrate recruitment work into building reservist force, every year in April, Ha Nam Provincial High Command held recruitment coordination conferences with the participation of representatives from districts and communes, regular military units and reservist units. In these conferences, participants discussed recruitment quota, proposals for military training for reservist force building, recruitment criteria and approaches to implement recruitment surveys.

In the past, there were several cases in which military units refused to accept a number of candidates (mainly for medical reasons). To ensure this would not occur again, Ha Nam Public Health Department and Provincial High Command instructed districts to improve the task performance of enlistment medical test councils; and conduct training for medical test process. Also, the provincial administration sent additional medical personnel and equipment to assist districts in conducting in-depth medical tests and ensure objectivity in evaluation. As a result, the quality of medical test for enlistment candidate was significantly improved; in recent years in Ha Nam, there was no candidate refusal due to medical reasons. In addition, specialized military units were allowed to directly participate in medical tests to make sure their requirements were met. Furthermore, in compliance with Circular 50 BQP/BCA, the provincial administration instructed districts to closely monitor approved candidates after they received drafting order.

Fully aware that “taking good care of soldiers’ family will greatly contribute to recruitment quality”, Ha Nam Province authority placed heavy emphasis on mobilizing all resources in the society to conduct recruitment work and provide mental and material support for military members. That said, districts in Ha Nam had many practical ways to realize this idea, such as: organizing musical gala to encourage young citizens to enlist; providing political education for Party member candidates and approving their membership admission before the enlistment; and visiting and send gifts (each gift worth about one million VND) to families of draftees, etc. Since 2016, 244 candidates out of 740 eligible individuals for Party membership have been approved to join the Party. This work was not only a contribution to strengthening the military political power, but also a method to prepare candidates for further administrative offices and increase the ratio of Party member in the province’s reservist force.

At the same time, provincial administrative offices in Ha Nam also worked with local businesses to create and preserve job opportunity for discharged soldiers or drafted civilians. In 2017, the provincial high command advised the province administration to hold a job conference for discharged military members; in this conference, there was the participation of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Department, Provincial Party Committee of Administrative Offices and Business Block, and the management board of industrial parks (Chau Son, Dong Van 1, Dong Van 2, etc), Ha Nam Vocational Training School and local businesses which were in need of male employees, etc. This conference greatly contributed to the realization of vocational training and job creating programs; and was a huge encouragement for young people to join the military. Besides the approaches and methods mentioned above, the provincial administration also instructed districts to organize solemn military enrollment ceremonies, making these events really “enlistment festivals”. On the other hand, homecoming events for discharged soldiers were also organized solemnly, carefully and practically.

In 2018, Ha Nam Province will continue to apply experience and lessons learned from previous drafting seasons to fulfill military recruitment objectives, contribute to national military building and the work of national defense.

100 years ago, following “Ten days that shook the world”, the Russian October Revolution resulted in the advent of the first socialist state of its kind. The struggle of Soviet people in the ensuing years and the collapse of the Soviet Union over the course of its 74-year existence have shown that seizing power is inherently difficult, but retaining it is far more difficult